Increasing numbers of Brits are predicting riots and even civil war unless Brexit is delivered, with the March 31st deadline for Article 50 to be triggered fast approaching.
Sky News visited Brexit-strongholds and talked to people who made it clear what they thought would happen if the timeline for Britain’s exit from the EU was not announced soon.
“Oh, there’ll be mass riots. There’ll be hysteria. There could even be a civil war. The country has used its voice and if the Government ignores what the people have said then there is going to be a civil war. There is going to be,” one woman told the broadcaster.
She added that people would be “very angry and let down” if the government attempted to deliver a watered down Brexit that left the UK open to mass uncontrolled immigration from other EU countries.
“People have spoken and if people don’t get what they’ve asked for then people are going to rise and they are going to use their voice in different ways and they are going to be extremely angry,” concluded Liz Pugh.
The sentiment is one that seems increasingly mirrored across the country, with Nigel Farage warning back in November that “political anger the likes of which none of us in our lifetimes have ever witnessed in this country” will unfold if voters feel they have been “cheated”.
Brexit supporters initially warned of riots after the UK’s High Court ruled that Parliament would need to vote for the government to activate Brexit, a decision that is likely to be backed up by a Supreme Court ruling due later this month.
“If Brexit doesn’t go ahead, you are going to get civil uproar. It’s not a word I use lightly, but there is going to be a revolution. There will be a revolution,” said Stephen Raven, a borough councillor in Boston.
Brexit In Trouble: UK’s Ambassador To EU Suddenly RESIGNS
Britain’s ambassador to the European Union is out, signaling big trouble for the upcoming “Brexit.”
Sir Ivan Rogers, the UK’s representative to the EU, left just a few short months before formal negotiations were slated to begin to discuss how to dissolve the relationship between England and the rest of the continent.
Rogers offered no explanation for the move, the Financial Times reports:
Since his appointment in late 2013, Sir Ivan was one of the leading advisers in former prime minister David Cameron’s pre-referendum renegotiation of EU membership terms and in his successor Theresa May’s preparations for Brexit.
While he had a longstanding relationship with Mrs May and was consulted by her on the government’s Brexit strategy, Sir Ivan’s relations with some of the prime minister’s team began to deteriorate in recent months.
This culminated in December with a leak to the BBC of Sir Ivan’s advice to the prime minister suggesting it could take until the early mid-2020s for the EU to agree and ratify a comprehensive trade deal with Britain.
Although the advice was months old and reflected Sir Ivan’s conversations with senior EU officials, the leak prompted a series of negative articles in the pro-Brexit newspapers. The Daily Mail reported that “knives were out” for Britain’s ambassador to the EU because of his “gloomy pessimism.”
The BBC is reporting that Rogers said a trade deal between the EU and the UK might take a decade to finalize, which would slow down any Brexit attempts. This has drawn great criticism from other elected officials in England.
Ministers have said a deal can be done within two years, and BBC Brussels correspondent Kevin Connolly said it appeared there had been “some failure of synchronization” between Sir Ivan and the UK government, BBC reports:
Sir Ivan had been due to leave his post in November 2017.
Former Lib Dem leader Nick Clegg, who once worked for Sir Ivan in Brussels, described his resignation as a “body blow to the government’s Brexit plans”.
Labour MP Hilary Benn, who chairs the Brexit select committee, said it had come at a “crucial” point and urged the government to “get its skates on” in finding a replacement. “It couldn’t be a more difficult time to organize a handover,” he added.
H/T: ZeroHedge
